Forty years ago Hobart City Council introduced the concept of the parking officer to Australian cities. Parking officers endeavouring to enforce efficient, equitable and safe access to parking, have often been vilified as perpetrators of gross injustices on hard done by motorists! All that is now changing. Hobart has embarked upon a program to change not only the image of parking officers but the nature of the job itself.
Rather than acting merely as enforcers of by laws, the extensive knowledge these Council officers have about their locality is being harnessed to benefit residents and visitors, improve Council services, and expand the skills and career opportunities of the officers themselves.
To begin with, staff formed into self motivated teams with the overriding objective of promoting the City and State of Tasmania. A training course specifically for parking and information officers, as they are now known, provided new skills and attitudes. This has improved officers’ self image, their knowledge of the City and ways to handle incidents safely and efficiently.
A new staff hiring process provides induction and training for new officers rather than the previous system where new staff had just a day to familiarise themselves with the job in the company of another officer. A procedure manual written by and for the officers assists with this process. To acquaint themselves with every aspect of Council, each officer can spends from three to six months in the Customer Service Centre.
Here they familiarise themselves with the details of Council services, the nature of complaints and the best way to deal with them. All officers are trained in the use of the latest technological equipment to carry out their duties and over 90 per cent are trained in first aid.
Officers now have a greater understanding of their role in the organisation as a whole, and a greater understanding of Council’s role in the community. In addition, they enjoy increased variety on the job and the advantages of multi skilling.
The City has also benefited from major innovations introduced by the officers. These include a wheelchair hire service, motorcycle patrols, a marketing campaign for car parks and the implementation of late night parking to meet the needs of the Royal Hobart Hospital and other organisations open after midnight.
For further information, contact Bob Barnes, telephone (03) 6238 2803.
